Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 205 | Wed 10 Apr 2013
EGYPT: EVIL THRIVES IN LAWLESS SINAI
By Elizabeth Kendal
It was in the Sinai desert that the nation of Israel received God's law. Consequently we tend to think of the Sinai as a place of law-giving. Today, however, under Egyptian control, the Sinai (particularly the north-east) is absolutely lawless -- a place of law-breaking. Not only has al-Qaeda established a presence, but Bedouin criminal gangs and human traffickers operate with impunity. The Egyptian government knows that the clusters of concrete buildings dotting the Sinai desert are being used as torture chambers by human traffickers. The traffickers relay their victims' agony to family members or diaspora groups via mobile phone to facilitate payment of ransom. Even when ransom is paid it is not uncommon to find that victims are subsequently sold on to other traffickers who repeat the process. Failure to pay will result in death by torture, including through the extraction of saleable organs. New York Times (NYT) estimates that some 7000 refugees have been abused this way in the past four years and that 4000 of them may have died.
The victims, mostly Eritrean (99 percent) as well as Somali and Sudanese refugees, include many Christians who have fled persecution in their homelands (see RLPBs 185 and 187, November 2012). Most of the victims have been kidnapped from the Shagarab refugee camps in eastern Sudan, home to tens of thousands of Eritrean refugees, and then transferred to the Sinai where they are sold to criminals. Eritrean opposition groups are demanding that Sudan improve security at the camps. Chairman of the Ethiopia-based Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA), Tewelde Gebresilase, says human trafficking is carried out by a highly organised network that stretches from Eritrea to the refugee camps in Sudan and to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. It is a highly lucrative business, not only for the Bedouin, but for the Eritrean, Sudanese and Egyptian officials who are involved either directly or indirectly through taking bribes. According to intelligence sources, it is a major form of revenue for the corrupt and wicked regime ruling Eritrea.
On 1 April Amnesty International (AI) released a report entitled 'EGYPT/SUDAN: refugees and asylum seekers face brutal treatment, kidnapping for ransom, and human trafficking'. (Index: AFR 04/001/2013). AI is appealing that Egypt and Sudan should 'make urgent and concerted efforts to stop asylum-seekers and refugees being kidnapped from camps in Sudan, forcibly transported to Egypt, and being severely abused in the Sinai desert'. Reporting on a typical case, AI writes, 'On 22 January 2013, two Eritrean women living in the Shagarab camps set out to go to church, but did not arrive at their destination. Camp residents believe they were kidnapped.'
Recently five Eritreans escaped from their captors during a fierce night storm. Whilst two perished en route, three made it to safety. Mhretab (27) is frail and heavily scarred. 'We had barely anything to eat or drink,' he explains. 'And we weren't allowed to sleep. If we did, they burned us. They scorched the skin on our arms or backs with burning plastic, or they burned us directly with lighters. They hung us from our feet and hit us. If we cried, they called our families and we had to beg them over the phone to pay for us.' By selling everything they owned and taking up a collection at church, Mhretab's family raised the ransom. But instead of releasing Mhretab, his kidnappers sold him on to other human traffickers. Lemlem (15) is totally traumatised. Wearing only a sweater, she asks the home owner if there is any underwear she can put on.
In another case, Ahlam (8) saw her 'parents' brutalised and other hostages murdered. On 12 March her captors put her on the phone to Swedish-Eritrean radio journalist Meron Estefanos. After recalling the horrors she had witnessed, Ahlam confirmed that the traffickers were threatening to take her from her 'parents' and sell her on to another gang. Fortunately for this family, they were released alive in late March after payment of ransom. Ahlam's uncle Adem, who had posed as Ahlam's father so he could stay with the women of the family to afford them some protection, has been hospitalised with serious torture injuries. Ahlam's father negotiated their release from Canada while claiming to be 'a distant relative in Saudi Arabia'. Ms Estefanos told NYT last year that Eritrean relatives sell land and possessions to raise ransoms. 'They borrow money from people, go from church to church,' she said.
This evil thrives because nobody is prepared to act against it. Egyptian President Morsi would say it is not in his interests to pick a fight with criminals who are hurting only non-Arabs and mostly non-Muslims anyway, posing no threat to him personally or politically. The Arab-supremacist, Islamist President Bashir in Khartoum, Sudan, would say the same. As for the Eritrean regime at the source of the problem, it is certainly not in its interests to see its refugees protected or its human trafficking revenues cut off. The whole situation would be totally hopeless were it not for the reality of the Lord of Hosts.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT THE LORD OF HOSTS --
* who demands 'Let my people go,' will shake the Sinai and break the arm (the mechanism of action) of the wicked (Psalm 10:15), that his people might be delivered and law and order restored to the desert.
* will send his forces to guard the mostly Eritrean refugees -- many of whom are Christians -- in Sudan's Shagarab camps. 'The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.' (Psalm 34:7 ESV); may all the refugees look to him and put their hope in him.
* will intervene in Eritrea, the source of the problem, to liberate it from its corrupt, repressive and wicked regime.
Please pray Psalm 10 over Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt, '. . . so that man, who is of the earth, may strike terror no more' (v18b ESV).
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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EVIL THRIVES IN LAWLESS SINAI
Political and religious refugees fleeing repression and persecution in Eritrea often end up in eastern Sudan's Shagarab refugee camps. These camps are grossly insecure and refugees are routinely kidnapped and sold to Bedouin criminals in Egypt's lawless Sinai desert. Here they are tortured until ransom is paid. Some are released alive, but many traffickers take the ransom and then sell their victims on to other traffickers. It is estimated some 7000, mostly Eritrean refugees, have been abused this way in the last four years and that around 4000 may have died. Amongst the victims are many Christians who have fled persecution. Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt have no interest in stopping what is for them a very lucrative business. Please pray for the Lord of Hosts to intervene.
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Elizabeth Kendal is the author of
Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah speaks to Christians today
(Deror Books, Dec 2012)
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
RLPB 204. Bangladesh: dangerous chaos looms
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 204 | Wed 03 Apr 2013
BANGLADESH: DANGEROUS CHAOS LOOMS
By Elizabeth Kendal
If Bangladesh does not change its present trajectory, it will be sucked into a vortex of bloody civil and sectarian conflict. In 1971 as many as three million were killed when Bangladesh fought for independence from Pakistan. Bangladeshi Islamist groups such as the Jama'at-e-Islami aided and abetted the Pakistan military in war crimes. Though the war ended, the ideological struggle continued. Since independence, political power has oscillated between the pro-Pakistan, pro-Islamist Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the quasi-secular Awami League. After the 11 September 2001 terror attacks, the US invaded Afghanistan via Pakistan. In Bangladesh, Islamic fundamentalist, mostly Taliban-trained clerics denounced the 'war on Islam', whipping up Islamic indignation. Islamic rage was reflected in Bangladesh's October 2001 election results which saw the secular Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina routed and the Islamic BNP led by Khaled Zia -- in coalition with some very radical Islamist groups -- sweep to power. The hard-line Islamist Jama'at-e-Islami Party, the BNP's principal coalition partner, went from holding one seat to 17 seats.
The elections in December 2008 saw the Awami League restored to power as part of a 14-party Grand Alliance. Its election platform included the promise to set up a court to try those accused of committing war crimes during the 1971 War of Independence. Accordingly the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) was established in 2010. However, justice seems to be less of a concern than the December 2013 elections, especially in these days of Islamic resurgence and Sunni ascendancy. Trials commenced in January 2013, but of the 1600 suspects listed only eleven have been charged and all are leaders in the opposition Jama'at-e-Islami Party. On 5 February pro-secularists started protesting what they claimed was judicial slowness and leniency. Led by young bloggers and student activists, the 'Shahbag' protesters demanded that the accused be convicted and executed; and that Jama'at-e-Islami (JI) be banned. The government interfered in the judicial process to ensure that the next JI suspect was sentenced to death, triggering Islamic riots. (The Islamists are not alone in charging that the government is running unjust, non-transparent show-trials for political gain.)
Now the Islamists are playing the religion card, labelling the 'Shahbag' protesters 'anti-Islamic'. Bloggers, journalists and passers-by have been beaten and hacked to death. An estimated 100 people have been killed in clashes (including with police) since early February as protests evolve into riots that are increasingly out of control. Both sides of politics are promising to punish those who defame Islam. On Friday 29 March tens of thousands of Islamists filled the streets of Dhaka to pray, call for blasphemy laws and demand the restoration of a caretaker government [PHOTOS]. Members of Islami Andolan Bangladesh are demanding the arrest of 'atheist bloggers who insulted Islam', and the passing of laws to punish those who 'insulted Islam in the parliament'. They have threatened to 'lay siege' to the office of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 25 April if their demands are not met. On Sunday 31 March shots were fired at the political office of BNP leader Khaleda Zia who, however, was not hurt. International war crimes barrister Toby Cadman warns: 'Failure to find a resolution could see the country descend into civil war.' (See: Bangladesh on the Brink. CNN special, 13 March 2013)
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) reports (7 March): 'The violence has spread beyond Dhaka, where fundamentalist hoodlums target members of the minority communities and their properties. [Minorities mostly vote for the secular Awami league.] Arson and looting is rampant. Places of worship are burned down or otherwise vandalised. It is gruesomely clear that nobody is in control.' After questioning the true purpose and integrity of the ICT the AHRC notes: 'The ensuing confusion has resulted in opportunities for criminal elements in the country to target their victims, most importantly the minorities.' The Hindu community as the largest minority (10 percent) is being hit hard. An Islamic fuse has been lit. A jihad would attract foreigners, especially Pakistanis. At a vulnerable 0.6 percent, Christians will not escape if violence continues to escalate and spread. Basserkella, a JI-run website, articulates the threat: 'We will kill all the Malauns [infidels] and Bangladesh will be "Banglastan" like Pakistan.'
FOR an update see: Bangladesh: Islam Rising
Religious Liberty Monitoring, 7 April 2013
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT THE LORD WILL --
* raise up peacemakers and agents of reconciliation, empowering their voices and blessing their efforts, so that the rioting will end and the rage subside, giving wisdom a chance to be heard and reason a space to take root.
* 'send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness' to shield and protect his vulnerable Church and provide all their needs for shelter, sustenance and security.
'Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfils his purpose for me. He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah. God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!' (Psalm 57:1-3 ESV.)
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
------------------------------------------------------------------
DANGEROUS CHAOS LOOMS IN BANGLADESH
Protests and counter-protests between pro-secular and pro-Islamist forces erupted in Bangladesh in February. The situation is increasingly out of control as the protests spread beyond Dhaka and have become riots. Some 100 people have already died. War crime trials have helped provoke the protests. Senior opposition figures are being sentenced to death for crimes allegedly committed in the 1971 War of Independence. Many analysts (not just Islamists) fear the trials (which lack due process) are politically motivated. In return, Islamists claim the pro-secularist protesters are 'anti-Islamic'. Islamist websites contain threats to eliminate all 'infidels'. Human rights monitors confirm that minorities (mostly Hindus, who comprise 10 percent) are being specifically targeted. Christians are exceedingly vulnerable at only 0.6 percent of the population. Please pray for the Church in Bangladesh.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Elizabeth Kendal is the author of
Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today
(Deror Books, Dec 2012)
BANGLADESH: DANGEROUS CHAOS LOOMS
By Elizabeth Kendal
If Bangladesh does not change its present trajectory, it will be sucked into a vortex of bloody civil and sectarian conflict. In 1971 as many as three million were killed when Bangladesh fought for independence from Pakistan. Bangladeshi Islamist groups such as the Jama'at-e-Islami aided and abetted the Pakistan military in war crimes. Though the war ended, the ideological struggle continued. Since independence, political power has oscillated between the pro-Pakistan, pro-Islamist Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the quasi-secular Awami League. After the 11 September 2001 terror attacks, the US invaded Afghanistan via Pakistan. In Bangladesh, Islamic fundamentalist, mostly Taliban-trained clerics denounced the 'war on Islam', whipping up Islamic indignation. Islamic rage was reflected in Bangladesh's October 2001 election results which saw the secular Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina routed and the Islamic BNP led by Khaled Zia -- in coalition with some very radical Islamist groups -- sweep to power. The hard-line Islamist Jama'at-e-Islami Party, the BNP's principal coalition partner, went from holding one seat to 17 seats.
The elections in December 2008 saw the Awami League restored to power as part of a 14-party Grand Alliance. Its election platform included the promise to set up a court to try those accused of committing war crimes during the 1971 War of Independence. Accordingly the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) was established in 2010. However, justice seems to be less of a concern than the December 2013 elections, especially in these days of Islamic resurgence and Sunni ascendancy. Trials commenced in January 2013, but of the 1600 suspects listed only eleven have been charged and all are leaders in the opposition Jama'at-e-Islami Party. On 5 February pro-secularists started protesting what they claimed was judicial slowness and leniency. Led by young bloggers and student activists, the 'Shahbag' protesters demanded that the accused be convicted and executed; and that Jama'at-e-Islami (JI) be banned. The government interfered in the judicial process to ensure that the next JI suspect was sentenced to death, triggering Islamic riots. (The Islamists are not alone in charging that the government is running unjust, non-transparent show-trials for political gain.)
Now the Islamists are playing the religion card, labelling the 'Shahbag' protesters 'anti-Islamic'. Bloggers, journalists and passers-by have been beaten and hacked to death. An estimated 100 people have been killed in clashes (including with police) since early February as protests evolve into riots that are increasingly out of control. Both sides of politics are promising to punish those who defame Islam. On Friday 29 March tens of thousands of Islamists filled the streets of Dhaka to pray, call for blasphemy laws and demand the restoration of a caretaker government [PHOTOS]. Members of Islami Andolan Bangladesh are demanding the arrest of 'atheist bloggers who insulted Islam', and the passing of laws to punish those who 'insulted Islam in the parliament'. They have threatened to 'lay siege' to the office of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 25 April if their demands are not met. On Sunday 31 March shots were fired at the political office of BNP leader Khaleda Zia who, however, was not hurt. International war crimes barrister Toby Cadman warns: 'Failure to find a resolution could see the country descend into civil war.' (See: Bangladesh on the Brink. CNN special, 13 March 2013)
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) reports (7 March): 'The violence has spread beyond Dhaka, where fundamentalist hoodlums target members of the minority communities and their properties. [Minorities mostly vote for the secular Awami league.] Arson and looting is rampant. Places of worship are burned down or otherwise vandalised. It is gruesomely clear that nobody is in control.' After questioning the true purpose and integrity of the ICT the AHRC notes: 'The ensuing confusion has resulted in opportunities for criminal elements in the country to target their victims, most importantly the minorities.' The Hindu community as the largest minority (10 percent) is being hit hard. An Islamic fuse has been lit. A jihad would attract foreigners, especially Pakistanis. At a vulnerable 0.6 percent, Christians will not escape if violence continues to escalate and spread. Basserkella, a JI-run website, articulates the threat: 'We will kill all the Malauns [infidels] and Bangladesh will be "Banglastan" like Pakistan.'
FOR an update see: Bangladesh: Islam Rising
Religious Liberty Monitoring, 7 April 2013
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT THE LORD WILL --
* raise up peacemakers and agents of reconciliation, empowering their voices and blessing their efforts, so that the rioting will end and the rage subside, giving wisdom a chance to be heard and reason a space to take root.
* 'send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness' to shield and protect his vulnerable Church and provide all their needs for shelter, sustenance and security.
'Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfils his purpose for me. He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah. God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!' (Psalm 57:1-3 ESV.)
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
------------------------------------------------------------------
DANGEROUS CHAOS LOOMS IN BANGLADESH
Protests and counter-protests between pro-secular and pro-Islamist forces erupted in Bangladesh in February. The situation is increasingly out of control as the protests spread beyond Dhaka and have become riots. Some 100 people have already died. War crime trials have helped provoke the protests. Senior opposition figures are being sentenced to death for crimes allegedly committed in the 1971 War of Independence. Many analysts (not just Islamists) fear the trials (which lack due process) are politically motivated. In return, Islamists claim the pro-secularist protesters are 'anti-Islamic'. Islamist websites contain threats to eliminate all 'infidels'. Human rights monitors confirm that minorities (mostly Hindus, who comprise 10 percent) are being specifically targeted. Christians are exceedingly vulnerable at only 0.6 percent of the population. Please pray for the Church in Bangladesh.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Elizabeth Kendal is the author of
Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today
(Deror Books, Dec 2012)
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